The Hunger Games
by ArtisanGirl
Summary: The five great ninja villages have fallen and are long forgotten. A rebellion against the new Capitol failed and as reminder of that failure the Hunger Games were created. But this year is different, this year sparks will fly...
1. Chapter 1

Sunlight streamed through the window right onto my face. I held my hand above my eyes. I sit up slowly on my worn out couch, I stretched and wipe the sleep from my eyes. Across the room, on the only bed in the house, my mother and sister still sleep peacefully like today is any other normal day. But it isn't. Today is Reaping day.

I slip quietly out of bed putting on my threadbare leather jacket I got as a gift before my father passed away five years ago. My almost matching pair of boots fit like a glove to my feet. I grabbed my forage bag from under the table in our small kitchen and set out. The sun was barely peeking over the horizon setting long shadows down the empty streets of District 5. Because of the Reaping there is no school or work in the factories. And since the activities don't start until 2 o'clock why not sleep in.

It is a short walk from our house to the tall barbed wire fence that surrounds our district. It is supposed to protect the citizens of district 5 from the wild animals that roam the forest encircling our home. It's usually electrified, but the usual hum was gone, only to be replaced by silence. I crawled under the weak spot in the fence walked only a few feet into the thicket to stop in front of one large oak. I removed my bow and arrow out of the hollow in the side of the tree my father had carved so many years ago.

He had made the bow himself so he could hunt in these woods and bring some extra food into the house. He had started bringing me with him when I was seven. Sure, he could have sold the bow he made for a good price, but he would have been publicly executed for provoking a rebellion. Weapons were scarce throughout the five districts. The only possible weapons were the ones used for the mines and factories here in our district. But of course the tools weren't taken home by the workers but returned to the peacekeepers in charge until the next shift.

I slung the sheath if arrows over my shoulder and had only walked a short distance before I felt the presence of someone nearby. I was tense for a moment, but relaxed as a smile spread across my face. My best friend and fellow hunter, Kiba, stepped into view with a smile on his face, too. He said the woods are the only place in the world where I would smile. His spiky brown hair, canine like eyes, with red fang tattoos on each cheek made him unique. He looked as if he had been there awhile before me. His game bag had a slight bump in it.

"Hey Hinata, guess what I traded in for this morning," he said, reaching into his bag and pulling a whole loaf of baker's bread. "I traded for a squirrel. The old guy must be feeling sentimental today."

Smile gone, I nodded in understanding. I pulled out the goat cheese my sister had made. It was about the size of my palm.

"I guess we'll have a feast today," I said with a smirk.

By the time I got home around noon, my mother and sister were already ready. My mother looked lovely in one of her nicer dresses and her ebony hair was done. Hanabi had on one of my old Reaping outfits. A black knee length skirt and violet dress shirt. The clothes were too big for her and the tails of the shirt were sticking out. I noticed that one of my mother's old dresses was set on the bed. It was lavender with matching shoes. I was on the verge of refusing, but my mother deserved some slack today. There could be a chance I wasn't going to return home.

After I had gotten ready, I did my hair in a neat bun letting a few loose strands frame my face. I stood in front of the mirror on our living room wall. The girl that looked back at me looked nothing like the usual me. She looked confident and beautiful. My indigo hair, pale lavender-tinted eyes and pale skin seemed to go better together. My mother came up behind me and smiled like a proud parent would. I wanted to turn around and slap her, but then Hanabi spoke up.

"You look beautiful," she said grinning, but there was a trace of worry in her eyes.

I turned around and hugged her. This was her first reaping. Of course she'd be worried. But her name was only in the reaping ball once. Me on the other hand had my name in twenty two times. There are many things someone will do for their starving family and that's signing up for tesserae, which gave a meager amount of oil and grain for a person for a whole year. Since there was three of us and the times your name gets put into the reaping ball doubles each year from age twelve, the times my name has been put in has cumulated to twenty-two. But Kiba, on the other hand, with his three younger siblings has had his name in forty two times.

"Your name's only been in there once," I told her, "They're not gonna pick you."

She returned the hug gratefully, but when I looked at her again there was sorrow. Or grief. That she might lose me today. I just give her a genuine smile as our mother led us out of our home. People were already filing out of their houses toward the square, which was already crowded. I made my way over to the sixteen year old girl section and Hanabi made her way towards the twelve year olds. I kept my eye on her dark brown hair which had grown down to her knees. A few of the girls from school were standing by me. I recognized Sakura, Ino, and Ten Ten. The stage was set with the two reaping balls. One for the male tribute and one for the female tribute.

Hye Mi, the exceedingly enthusiastic announcer straight from the capitol, stepped onto the stage. She had on a lime green ensemble with matching hair and lipstick. She grinned showing a row of perfectly straight teeth. Too straight. She adjusted her hat and spoke:

"Welcome! Welcome to the 74th annual reaping of district 5!" she said in her strange Capitol accent, "Today we will be sending one girl and boy from each district to compete in the 74th annual Hunger Games!" Smile still in place, she sauntered over to the female reaping ball. "Ladies first!"

I felt my stomach flutter and my palms start to sweat. It seemed like a century before Hye Mi finally took out aslip of paper from the ball. I closed my eyes waiting and wondering whose name would be called. She cleared her throat.

"Hanabi Hyuga!"

I felt like my stomach fell o feet. My mouth hung open in a perfect 'O' shape, I started to shake slightly as they escorted my sister to the stage. Out of the names in the ball and the one name…

I was not about to let that happen.

"I volunteer!" I say loud enough for the whole district to hear.


	2. Chapter 2

It only took a few moments for the realization of what I just did to sink in. The peacekeepers, Capitol trained police, grabbed me by my arms and escorted me to the stage. I took a few shaky steps to stand next to Hye Mi. She smiled again and shoved the microphone in my face. The arena lights shone brightly onto my face. I looked into the audience and saw hundreds of eyes boring into mine. I scanned the crowd for my little sister. Kiba was carrying her away, but she was screaming something.

I felt a tug at my arm and looked over at Hye Mi. She was waiting expectantly for something. She must have asked me something. I looked around dumbstruck.

"I asked what your name was, hon," she said.

"Oh, um… M-my n-name is Hinata Hyuga," I replied.

"Ladies and gentleman, I'd like to introduce your female tribute… Hinata Hyuga," Effie exclaimed with much verve.

She gently nudged me to stand at her far right. She sauntered over to male reaping ball. It seemed like a century before she pulled out the small slip of paper. She slowly unrolled it and read the name:

"Naruto Uzumaki," she announced.

For the second time that day I felt my stomach fall. Not him. Anyone _but_ him. I watched as the familiar head of spiky blond hair made its way towards the stage. He had on his normal orange hoodie I normally see him in around school. He gave me a sheepish grin and stood at Hye's far left. She asked if there were any volunteers for Naruto, but of course there wasn't. There was some kind of emotion that I couldn't read in his blue eyes. He glanced in my direction and caught me staring at him. Pale violet met cerulean blue for just a few split seconds.

"Congratulations to our District 5 tributes, Hinata Hyuga and Naruto Uzumaki!"

I was waiting in the justice building for my mother and sister to come and see me before I was sent to the Capitol. When they finally came, my mother was in tears but my sister looked determined. My mother hugged me and I awkwardly hugged her back. Her pale skin was flushed and she looked like a little girl with her eyes as puffy as they were. I grabbed a hold of both her hands and looked her straight in the eye.

"Take care of Hanabi," I said, in an almost dangerous tone, "That's all I'll ask of you."

I gave Hanabi a hug and tried to cherish the last few moments I had with her. As the peacekeepers came in to escort them out, Hanabi handed me a small metal object. When they were gone, I held it up to examine it. It was a bronze pin. It was circular with the shape of a fox in the center with nine tails encircling it. I felt a rush of gratitude as I slipped the pin into my pocket. I

_I'm gonna win this!_

Just then two men walked in. One was a peacekeeper and the other was a citizen from my district. He was tall with silver hair and a medical mask pulled over a majority of his face and only exposing his left eye. I recognized him immediately. He was Kakashi Hatake, the only living victor of the games from our district. He had a very relaxed demeanor but some sort of air of superiority that made you respect him.

"Hinata Hyuga?" he asked.

"Yes?" I answered.

"My name is Kakashi Hatake and I will be your mentor for the Games," he said, cooly.

"Oh," was all I said.

**Naruto's POV**

I waited patiently for someone to come visit me. I wasn't really expecting someone, but the door flew open and my godfather Jiraiya walked in. He seemed like his usual drunk self. He gave a few slurred tidbits of advice and handed me a strange pin before the peacekeepers escorted him out. I turned it around in my palm. It was a bronze pin depicting a fox with nine tails. It was strange, but it doesn't matter to me what token I get.

The door opened once more, but instead of a visitor Kakashi Hatake and Hinata walked in. As usual she looked to the floor when I grinned at her. After a few awkward moments of silence, Kakashi cleared his throat and explained that he was going to be our mentor. Or in other words train us to eventually kill each other. I'm sure Hinata knew too, because she was tense the entire time. Peacekeepers cane into the waiting room to take us to the train. We were on our way to the Capitol…

**Hinata's POV**

On the train, servants showed us to our compartments and gave us directions on how to ask for room service and so on. When everyone had filled out the compartment that was meant to be mine, I closed the door behind with a few goodbyes and thank you's then slowly crawled into bed. It was king sized and only took up 5% of the floor space in the entire compartment. The rugs the covered the entire floor were made of fine linen and the stitching looked hand made. Obviously made in District 2, the district bordering 5. Suddenly, a strange thudding sound came from outside my door.

Three figures burst in, in a flurry of multi-colored skin and gold tattoos. I stared wide eyed as they rushed about the room adjusting things and setting up some kind of station. There were all types of hair products and other things I've never seen. After about ten minutes the three finally took notice to me. One woman was short and pudgy with violet hair and powder pink skin. She hurried over to me and gestured me toward the set up.

"C'mon we don't have much time before the dinner," she said in a hushed voice.

"Why are you whispering?" I asked.

"She always whispers," answered another woman with her, "Now Rin, where are your manners? You didn't even introduce yourself."

I was about to mention that none of them had introduced themselves when they barged in to my compartment, but thought better to hold my tongue. I was ushered into a chair as the three started working on me. I learned their names quick enough. The woman with the violet hair was Rin, the other woman that was tall and slender with gold hair in sharp points sticking out of her head, her name was Dev, and a more serious man who was short with a stocky build and lime green hair similar to Hye's was Uru. He silently nodded when he was introduced.

The three worked quickly and I was done in a matter of minutes. My hair was in a curtain of dark cascading waves. I had on a simple pink dress to my knees with matching shoes and pink lipstick. I made my way down the trains long corridor to the room marked dining hall. I slowly opened the door and was almost thrown back by the smell that caught by the smell. It wasn't delicious food but something else. The sweet smell of flowers smoldered by the smell of blood…

I threw the door open and saw Naruto, Kakashi, and Hye waiting for me. But there was a fourth person sitting there. He had jet black hair in a ponytail with hair framing his face. His skin was ghostly pale and his eyes were red as the blood that seemed to be somewhere in this room. I was looking around for the source of the smell when Hye snapped me back to reality by clearing her throat. She smiled at me but it seemed strained.

"Ah, Hinata, why don't you sit down and introduce yourself to president Uchiha?" she said.


End file.
